Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

Urban metabolism (UM) questions cities’ material and energy systems by identifying paths and transformation processes of all kinds of flows in urban contexts. In particular, one of its objectives is tracing the origin and destination of materials, energy, water, emissions, and waste flows to understand relationships between the cities and other spatial areas (hinterlands) that lead to political, social, and environment consequences. We propose a new approach which combines methodologies to understand the politics of UM and to analyze metabolic links between hinterland and consumption territories, in order to develop a “political-industrial ecology” of energy metabolism (Breetz, 2017; Cousins and Newell, 2015). To illustrate this approach, we developed a a case study of the energy metabolism of the Saint-Nazaire metropolitan area, located on the west coast of France. Saint-Nazaire is a predominant port zone in France, consisting in a complex network of highly energy-intensive industrial sites operating in the steel, petrochemical, and agri-food industries. In particular, the territory is home to the second largest crude oil refinery in France. The objective of this research is twofold. First, it aims to follow energy flows in order to provide insights on their territorial organization. Second, the resulting contextualized metabolism is used to discuss the potential contribution of a socio-material framework to evaluate energy transition initiatives currently investigated in the territory. The role and influence of different actors on metabolic flows and their management are a key issue to understand the governance of flows.